


The Hounds of War

by junko



Series: Curse of the Nue [9]
Category: Bleach
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-21
Updated: 2012-07-21
Packaged: 2017-11-10 10:25:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/465238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junko/pseuds/junko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Renji is beginning to doubt Byakuya's ability to free Rukia, and a storm is brewing between them....</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hounds of War

Renji followed his nose down the maze of back stairs and passageways to the kitchens of the Kuchiki estate. After waving a greeting to the girl doing dishes, he gave her an apologetic smile as he deposited the breakfast tray in her to-do pile. Luckily, there was still a lot there, but he still got an, “Oi, what do you think you’re playing at?”

“Sorry,” he said, “Comes from upstairs.”

“Upstairs? And you’re the one delivering it?” She gave him a lascivious smile, “Well, well.”

He gave her a little shrug. What else could he say? It wasn’t like he’d come down here to deny anything, necessarily. He wanted to scope out the lay of the land before he confirmed or denied any rumors.

In fact, he spotted the very person he’d come to see—the cook. Her name was Miki and she defied the stereotype by being young and slender, although not entirely without curves—all of which were in the right places as far as Renji was concerned. Her hair was a pile of bright blond curls that she tried to control with a braid, but ringlets slipped out in every direction. Renji found her utterly stunning. But it was more than her beauty that attracted him. Renji liked that when she needed to, she took command of the kitchen with a sharp tongue and an iron fist. He’d started flirting with Miki as a source of leftovers, but it was no hardship.

Miki hadn’t seen him yet. She was bent over a wooden table preparing vegetables. Renji came up behind her and gently took the paring knife from her hand.

“Oh! Renji,” she giggled, squirming out from under him, making room for him to take over trimming radishes and carrots. “You surprised me! I didn’t hear the door.”

“That’s because he come from _upstairs_ ,” the washer girl said in a pointed tone.

Miki frowned at the washer. “What are you implying, Suzume? Don’t you know anything? Renji is the lord’s adjutant.”

Renji raised an eyebrow to himself as he started peeling the carrots for Miki. Maybe he didn’t need to do much damage control, after all. But just then Miki leaned into him, touching his arm lightly with her shoulder, like a nudge, “So… do _you_ know who our overnight guest was?”

He started to open his mouth with the intention of acting as curious as anyone else when the little serving girl came rushing in, her face still flushed from her encounter upstairs, “Oh, girls, you’ll never guess what I just saw,” she started, but then spotted Renji and shrieked. “Ah! You! How did you get down here so quickly?”

Renji stabbed the knife into the soft wood of the cutting board, and he pointed his finger at her. “And how is it you’re running your mouth off when I told you to keep things to yourself? Do you _like_ your job? Maybe you’re looking forward to going back to whatever district you came from?”

“Oh, she _can’t_ , Renji,” the cook interceded. Miki clutched at his arm with a desperation Renji knew all too well. “Her family… they need the wages she sends back.”

Renji just nodded solemnly in sympathy, but he shrugged out from Miki’s grasp. “Exactly,” he snarled with a meaningful look at the little serving girl, who’d started quivering like a leaf again. “So that’s why none of us are talking about this overnight guest any more, are we?”

The chorus of “no, sir,” would be more gratifying if Renji had any real authority here. He realized, too, that his strong reaction could easily backfire and cause even more gossip to circulate.

So he took a deep breath and went back to peeling carrots. “Listen, I don’t give a fuck about any of it, but you know _him_ , right?” Renji gave the stairway a despairing look and shook his head. “We could all lose our jobs.”

Luckily, further discussion of the matter was derailed by the entrance of the breathless steward. He announced shrilly, “The lord has called for formal tea. We’re entertaining the Lady Masami Kuchiki.”

The kitchen burst into a fury of activity. Satisfied that they’d be too busy to gossip, Renji made his way out the servant’s exit, dodging frantic footmen and butlers.

#

 

Back at the Division, Renji was disappointed that there wasn’t more work waiting for him. He’d really wanted a good pile of mind-numbing paperwork to wade through so he could feel as though he’d accomplished something, but what little there was took him less than a half hour. The Third Seat was already drilling in the practice yard, so Renji was even denied the opportunity to rough up his squad. Renji supposed he could push the kid out of the way and take over, but it was good to see him taking a little initiative, so Renji left him to it.

It was too late in the day to hit the _onsen_ , but Renji really needed a bath. So he gathered up his things and made his way over to the bathhouse the Eleventh frequented. Gods knew it was cheaper, but, given the hour, it could be crowded.

In fact, as Renji paid the harassed-looking attendant he could tell the place was already overrun. There was no mistaking the rumble of reistsu permeating the place.

Kenpachi Zaraki was a powerfully frightening man under normal conditions, but he was utterly terrifying naked.

“Abarai?” the captain roared seeing Renji slipping into the water, “What the fuck, boy? Why you slumming here when you’ve got your own damn hot springs?”

At least Zaraki’s hair wasn’t its usual bizarre bell-topped spikes. Wet, his straight black hair hung like a ragged curtain in front of his scarred face. It was a slightly softer look, but the eye-patch still made him look like some kind of demented demon pirate.

The others turned to look at Renji curiously too. Of course, both Ikkaku and Yumichika were there as well. Renji sometimes wondered if Zaraki could take a shit without those two tagging along.

In answer to the captain’s question, however, Renji pointed to his chest, “You think I get special privileges, sir? No tattoos allowed.”

“Seriously? You’re the vice-captain, ain’t ya? You’d think he could make an exception for his second. That Kuchiki is such a tight ass,” the captain muttered, casually pushing the head of a nearby squabbler under the water. Renji silently counted hoping the captain would let the rowdy soldier up before he drowned. It was close. “Speaking of that lily-white ass, you finally get any?”

Renji had been in the middle of trying to avoid an elbow, but Zaraki’s question stunned him and he took a full crack on the jaw, “Son of a bitch!”

Zaraki waited patiently as Renji returned a retaliatory punch or two. “I bet not,” the captain mused. “It must be kind of tense over at yours, what with the little sister in jail.”

Renji had gotten the elbower in a headlock, so he paused to answer. “The captain’s handling it. From the sounds of things at the estate, he’s calling in all his favors.”

Zaraki grunted. “Good luck with that. Those snobby asshats aren’t going to want to bail out Kuchiki’s bitch. This is their chance to finally get rid of her, the stain on their noble name.”

Suddenly, Renji couldn’t breathe. The captain’s words had knocked the air from his lungs. He let the elbower slide from his grip.

He didn’t even realize he’d vaulted out and was headed for the door until he heard Zaraki call out, “Where you running off to, boy?”

The only thing that came out was a crazy, desperate: “Rukia….”

#

 

A short time later he was leaning against the bars of the cell wishing Rukia was a little less like her brother at the moment. All this stoic staring at the wall while giving him her back was doing Renji’s head in. He wasn’t sure she’d even gotten up out of that chair in the last two days. “Seriously,” he said. “You need to eat. Otherwise you’re going to waste away and die and miss your own damn execution.”

She didn’t have anything to say to that which was just weird. Renji made a mental note to request someone from the Fourth to keep an eye on her.

“Okay,” he sighed. “Let’s talk about something else. I hear your brother is entertaining your aunt Masami today.”

That got her curious. She turned her head around, her purple eyes wide. “Aunt Masa? Is Byakuya insane? Why would he do that? She’s a terror!”

Renji chuckled remembering his own run-in with the legendary Lady Kuchiki. “I know, right? Anyway, I can only guess he’s trying to rally your family around you.”

She made a humphing noise, and turned back to the wall dejectedly. “That’s a fool’s errand. They hate me.”

“So what? You’re one of them, aren’t you? I thought you Kuchikis were all about family obligations and duty.”

Rukia was silent for a long time. Then she said something that stabbed cold fear deep into Renji’s gut. “There’s no way you can understand, Renji. They’re nothing like us. They don’t have the kind of loyalty we used to have to the family we made. To them family means something completely different. Their only measure is blood. To them I’ve never been a Kuchiki because I wasn’t born to it.”

_Used to have?_ Despite the distance between them, Renji still thought of Rukia as his sister, his only family.

Renji stuck his head through the bars as far as it would go. “I still say it’s not going to matter. Thing is, you carry their _name_ , Rukia. There’s nothing more important to them than keeping that clean. They’re not going to let a criminal execution tarnish their precious fucking _name_.”

“That’s a beautiful dream,” she said, her voice hollow. “Too bad it’s a fantasy.”

Renji frowned at her, mortified to hear the pain in her voice. Then he turned his back to her and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He grunted. “When did you become such a pessimist?”

“When did you become a loyal lapdog to the Kuchikis?”

“Oi!” He turned around sharply, and reached through the bars as though to make a grab at her. “Come over here and say that to my face!”

She turned around and stuck her tongue out at him. Then she waggled her fingers behind her ears. “Woof! Woof! ‘Go fetch Rukia, Renji! There’s a good boy!’”

Okay. That hurt.

Besides, it was far too close to exactly what Byakuya had asked of him.

“Fuck off,” he snarled. Turning away, he stormed out of the guardhouse, “Good job. Now I’m looking forward to seeing you hang, girl.”

#

 

Except it was a lie. Renji rattled around the Division completely unhinged by his interaction with Rukia. He only felt better once he and Zabimaru took it out on whole squad’s worth of opponents. Even afterwards, Zabimaru continued to vibrate with unspent energy and his howling cries echoed hotly in Renji’s brain like a fever. Standing in the middle of the practice yard, panting from exercise, Renji felt it—they were on the cusp of something big. He could almost see it, like a haze in the distance….

Bankai.

This was _not_ good. Why would bankai be coming now? There was no enemy to fight. Nothing to sink their teeth into. Too bad the captain had left that orange-haired punk bleeding his life out on the street back in the human world. It would be nice to have a rematch with someone like him.

Zabimaru growled, hungry.

Familiar, powerful reistsu stepped through the Division’s gate, and Renji turned sharply. Zabimaru rose slightly, as if in challenge.

Byakuya met his eyes briefly. Then he scanned the practice yard, taking in the image of the defeated, exhausted bodies strewn around. “You do remember that it’s against peacetime policy to kill your subordinates, don’t you, Renji?” Byakuya asked, dryly, but with a touch of humor. “It would be helpful if not every one of my soldiers was in the infirmary.”

“Sorry, sir,” Renji said, though Zabimaru continued to spit and hiss.

Byakuya stood silently for a long moment. “Yet I see you’re far from satisfied.”

_Yes_ , hissed Zabimaru anxiously.

The other finished, _Fight us_!

Instead, Byakuya turned away, “When you’re quite finished, met me in my office.”

#

 

Not too much later, after Renji had managed to run off all his agitation and Zabimaru had finally agreed to return to his sealed state, Renji made his way to Byakuya’s office.

He mopped the sweat from his brow. He’d just kicked off his _waraji_ , when the door slid open. Byakuya blocked his entrance and seemed to inspect him for something before stepping aside. “Better?”

“I guess,” Renji said, rolling his shoulders still feeling tension in them. But, he was happy to see a small table set out with deserts. He made his way over and sat down.

After closing the door behind them, Byakuya came over as well. “What’s gotten you into this state this time?”

_What’s always to blame? You and your damn family._ But, Renji kept that thought to himself and just grunted noncommittally. He lifted the basket lids and his frown deepened. There was an array of namagashi – fancy tea treats.

“Shit,” Renji said, returning the top to the basket dejectedly. He didn’t even take any, despite the warm smell of bean paste. His stomach had soured just at the sight of them, and he was no longer hungry. “I take it things didn’t go well with your aunt.”

“As you see, we didn’t even make it to dessert.”

“Rukia is going to die, isn’t she?”

“It’s becoming quite possible.”

Renji’s eyes snapped up, trying to sense what was going on behind Byakuya’s blank expression. “But you’re not going to let that happen, are you?”

“I’m running out of legal avenues.”

“What about _illegal_ ones?”

“Talk of treason will not be tolerated, lieutenant.”

Renji snarled. He had to grip his hakama with whitening knuckles to keep from launching over the low table and strangling Byakuya. Their eyes met sharply.

“Perhaps you aren’t entirely in control of yourself yet, Renji,” Byakuya said. “Go, before I’m forced to put you under lock and key.”

Renji shot to his feet, his hand on Zabimaru. “Just fucking try it.”

Byakuya stood slowly, and Renji could feel the thrum of his reistsu rising just as deliberately. He was demonstrating just how easy it would be for him. “You have one last chance. Leave, or I will take you out.”

Renji’s ears rang with the cry of a wild baboon, and he wasn’t entirely sure he hadn’t made the sound himself, as he turned and stormed out.

 


End file.
